Jasprit Bumrah, the spearhead of India forced a four-month break due to a stress fracture “was not a difficult” period as there was “no pain” and he utilized his precious time to improve his strength and conditioning.
At the opening T20 International (T20I) in Guwahati on Sunday, Bumrah is making a comeback to competitive cricket against Sri Lanka. “It wasn’t hard for me because I’ve never been in pain.
“Even without wasting a single day I took this as a chance to build my strength, “Bumrah told bcci.tv after his first-team training session.
He has always been updated on how the team has developed and has done his homework so that once he’s back in action he won’t be found wanting.
“I was always keeping a track on what is happening so when you are back in the team, you shouldn’t be too far away.”
The 26-year-old pacer felt his health was continually compromised by playing all three formats, which warranted the break. Along with him, Dhawan will also return to the team.
Bumrah Opens On His Strength
“When you play continuously, your strength level goes down. Your fitness level can also go down a little bit. So I was looking at how to bring the strength back, how to improve upon the things I wanted to improve.”
“So take some time off and return fresh. Be hungry again. So all these things were on top of my mind. I am not looking too far ahead. I wanted to take one match at a time,” said Bumrah.
Bumrah thinks it’s hard to stay “hungry” if you play regularly. “Initially what happened, I was playing a lot of cricket and it was very difficult to manage the hunger. I was playing regularly. Then I got a break and after that, I felt like ‘now you want to play as soon as possible’. You are always eager but you don’t want to rush into things.”
Bumrah heartily thanked the support of Indian staff for helping him to recover and working regularly to provide useful feedback. “Very good inputs from bowling coach Bharat Arun. I was always in touch with the support staff. The team management also kept on asking me what was going on and how was I progressing. Constant monitoring was going on. They asked questions like what do you want to do now that you are back from break.”
On Friday night, Bumrah was satisfied with his first full lights training session. “The intensity was very good, very high intensity, to the point where you do exactly what you wanted to do.”
“At the fielding session, we covered all bases, we did the high catches, we did the run-out practice. And in the nets, we did spot bowling, practiced bowling yorkers. We ticked all the boxes,” he added.
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